Web Stories

Letter to the editor of the Trenton (N.J.) Times

Posted February 17, 2006; 09:00 a.m.

by Robert K. Durkee

This letter to the editor was published in the Feb. 17, 2006, Trenton (N.J.) Times:

Robertson funds not diverted

The Times' article about the lawsuit brought against Princeton
University by William Robertson and other members of the Robertson
family, "University funds diverted" (Feb. 10), was based entirely on
selective materials recently submitted by them to the court. The result
is not only a one-sided view of a complex case covering more than 45
years and several hundred thousand pages of documents, but an article
that left several serious misimpressions.

Most important, by relying on testimony presented out of context, the
article erroneously reports that Princeton’s President Shirley Tilghman
admitted to diverting certain funds to purposes outside the scope of
the Robertson Foundation mission and to concealing the funding from
members of the Robertson family. In fact, she did not do either of
these things. A full reading of her testimony reveals that she says
just the opposite: These funds were not diverted to outside uses and
she had no role in how they were reported. President Tilghman did state
that when she attended her first meeting as president of the foundation
just three months before the suit was filed, she took responsibility
for the fact that its governance procedures needed to be updated and
transparency needed to be increased. Contrary to the impression left by
the article, over the past four years she has done just that, despite
continuing opposition from members of the Robertson family.

The Robertson Foundation was created for the sole purpose of supporting
the graduate program of Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and
International Affairs. For 45 years, funds provided by the foundation,
as well as additional funds provided by the University, have been used
to advance the foundation’s mission, and the school’s list of
exceptional achievements is long and growing. A central issue in this
case is whether descendants of the donors can now overturn the
decisions their parents made 45 years ago.

Finally, the article left several misleading impressions based on
numbers that were inaccurate or taken out of context. For example, in
the specific years cited in the article and over the past 30 years, the
numbers of graduating students going into government service for their
first jobs are substantially higher than was reported. This past year,
87 percent took jobs in the public and non-profit sectors, with 53
percent working for governments or international organizations such as
the United Nations and the World Bank. More than half of the eligible
students in last year’s graduating class applied for the prestigious
Presidential Management Fellows program, which provides two-year
internships in the federal government, and despite intense national
competition, more than half of Princeton’s applicants were selected. As
impressive as they are, these first-job placements are only one of many
measures of the school’s success, as some students will go into
government service later in their careers and others will work with
government agencies or engage in government-related activities in other
ways.

Thanks to support from the Robertson Foundation, the Wilson School is
one of the country’s leading schools of public and international
affairs. It has a proud record, consistent with its mission of
successfully preparing students for careers in government and related
fields.

Robert K. Durkee is vice president and secretary, Princeton University